#and you certainly don't need to invent reasons to not like a ship ??

[bottomlessabyssposts]

Back in my day (as if I'm old) crackship meant two characters from different works... why is it now used as a pejorative term for ships you don't like / understand?

[darklinaforever]

This person responded to this post :

And I basically answered this (obviously to get blocked because the anti Darklina people don't appreciate being met with the truth in the face) :

It's been years since the Darkling bullshit being supposed to be a representation of Leigh Bardugo's personal experience is a pure invention of the antis. The Darkling was inspired by Jareth the goblin king from the film Labyrinth, and the character Raistlin from the Dragonlance books.

Then people can ship whatever they want. There is absolutely no need for a relationship to be healthy to be shipped, keep your puritanical morals to yourself. It’s fiction damn it.

And in terms of toxic relationship portrayal, Malina, the canonical and endgame relationship of this trilogy, is actually much worse, so I don't recommend spitting on Darklina. Not to mention so many other subjects beyond romance, within the trilogy treated in a horrible way by the author.

Then to conclude, there is something very simple called tags. There is no reason to put anti-Darklina comments in the tag dedicated to Darklina. Let people love what they want in their spaces. It's not very complicated though.

I specifically emphasize this last point. That people stop going to tags that are not made for them in order to pour out their hatred there and then find themselves surprised to then have thoughts about it.

What exactly do these people think ? They think they are morally superior for pouring out their bullshit in a tag dedicated to the love of a ship they hate ?

The Darklina stans are happy to like something fictional, you're going to harass real-life people online.

The Darklina stans are content to like something that certainly has some problematic attributes but which is above all fictional, you on the contrary are actually going to harass people in real life online. You are having real problematic behavior by doing this kind of thing. Not the Darklina stans who just like a fictional ship in their corner.

Grow up a little.

[onewomancitadel]

WOW. Incredible response. I havent read your fic yet but now I am seriously considering it. I walked into this blog thinking Jaune/Cinder was just some weird crack ship. I believed all the typical stuff I see you mention like "she 2 evul theres no way!" lol but as I continued reading I slowly started to realize that this ship made sense. A LOT of sense. Im still trying to overcome my "you cant date a villain" programming but your posts are peeling back the layers of my biases. Again, thank you.

(Context).

This is a lovely message, thank you! I'm very glad you enjoyed my response. Most of all, whether or not you agree with what I say here, I just hope you enjoy figuring things out on your own and come to your own conclusions.

The reason why I take issue with that idea of 'you can't date a villain' er, programming, as you say, is because I think it's an idea taken for granted that doesn't appreciate what an individual story be trying to say... and I think trying to unpack some of our assumptions about the way stories should work is interesting. I am a big fan of R/WBY, for instance, and I wonder what it is about my background that makes me different from others who really don't like, say - let's get polemic here - Penny or Ironwood's character arcs.

So, I think that if you come to your own conclusions and draw your own boundaries about what you're comfortable with in fiction and you still don't like villains, redemption arcs, or - anything, really - you are more than allowed to do that, and you certainly don't need my permission to do so to begin with.

On the other hand, I really appreciate you taking the time to read my blog and respectfully interact with me, even if we're not necessarily working on the same wavelength (or might be working towards that? lol), and I was (and am) more than happy to elaborate on my ideas - particularly when sometimes things that are obvious to me are not necessarily obvious to you. I can point you to posts that might be helpful (if I can find them) and tags, or I am happy to expand as well... I am actually very happy to interact with people, and getting a good anon is really fun to respond to.

The question of Jaune/Cinder as a rarepair as opposed to a crackship is something we've discussed before, and I've had an anon before say very recently to me that they believed the same thing:

Oh yeah, we have had the crackship vs. rarepair debate before (and somewhere back September last year I responded to an ask by redhoodhungergames about Knightfall as a rarepair but I can't find it), and the linguistic evolution of conflating rarepair with crackship meanwhile crackships nevertheless take on fandom precedence due to panfandom baggage (e.g. searching to insert the same archetypes irrespective of canon context and pairing them together even if wholesale inventing most of the characterisation).

So, that's rather interesting... once you see and don't just look...

Nyeheheheh.

Personally I feel on this level Jaune/Cinder works as a successful twist, which whether or not it's in everybody's personal favour, has strong motivation in favour for it. (Or, let's say that Knightfall being controversial might be a reason in favour for it).

Regarding my fic, you are welcome to read it ('it' being my longfic, but there are others on my profile... you may not want to get to those first though lol) but do spare me if you don't enjoy it. (; There's no pressure though, and really I just wanted to emphasise that I don't think of myself as a professional meta writer, and also that I genuinely struggled to intellectually articulate 'why' they ought to love each other... it's something very emotional to me.

Also, from what I've been told and the vibe I get from my readers, my fic doesn't exactly follow the form of other R/WBY fics, and that can be a good or a bad thing depending on individual taste. I'm not trying to make it sound more than it is, just if you have certain expectations, it might be affronting. I'm not trying to sound pretentious or anything or make it sound like more than it is, but why I'm wary about recommending my work at all is because a) it's intensely personal and b) I don't read other R/WBY fic and come from a literary background and really emphasise the mythic/fairytale/literary elements of R/WBY. So, what you see here about the way I talk about R/WBY canon definitely influences my writing.

I am definitely happy to expand on any more topics, I did link you the Knightfall masterpost and I can talk about other R/WBY ships if that would help.

Now, on a more specific point about Cinder being too evil: that's the really interesting part because Knightfall is linked to Cinder's redemption arc. So to understand Knightfall you need a coherent theory of redemption and redemption in R/WBY. I don't read this romance as happening independently of her redemption arc, so anything I say under my Cindemption tag is equally applicable to how one needs to view Knightfall. I enjoy the idea that Cinder's meant to be the Fall Maiden (redeeming our perspective of the power - as more than just a powerlevel - through her perspective), and Jaune's meant to finally help (and fall in love with) this Fall Maiden... just not the one you thought. It's bittersweet, but it ends on a hopeful note.

Knightfall is the thematic lynchpin to everything I think is valuable and interesting and at the heart of R/WBY, from Ozlem to the Maiden power to how the heroes will prevail and what it means to be heroic... it's one part of the picture, for sure, it's not the Jaune and Cinder Show, but I think that's part of what makes the ship really beautiful, the fact it's this essential connection against an epic backdrop.

I can never predict if something goes wrong in the story, but I do feel satisfied that things I thought were going to happen have happened in the show based on the way I intuited them... so they do have some sense of coherent storytelling and foreshadowing. The reason I bring up Penny and Ironwood is because I felt those story points were self-evident and flagged very effectively, and thematically justified... cue me logging onto Tumblr and seeing otherwise lol. So, I feel like I have some understanding of the show and why it does things the way it does, and that's why I feel taking other Jaune or Cinder ships for granted is terribly dangerous, because I've seen other things taken for granted - like Penny becoming a new main character and joining the cast and having Friendship Hijinks - that ended in a lot of intense personal pain for people. Similarly to them, though, I would never want to lead anybody astray (not that they did, but I am talking about some stuff that is very emotionally... touching, let's say), and so that's why I think coming to your own conclusion is necessary. And more fun. (:

It is very interesting to receive this ask because yes, I've had a few people say as much as you're saying, and what I'm personally wondering is how the show seeks to accomplish this (this potential change of opinion). As a Cinder fan for a long time, it's been interesting to see more sympathy for her after V8, for instance. I would say now is as good a time as any to be a Cinder fan, which is really saying something for how bad it used to be lol.

As I said, Knightfall would be a crazy twist (so would Cindemption for those who don't see it coming) and it would recontextualise their characters together... and to me I think really justify both of them lol. So there's a lot wrapped up in it that's really interesting.

Thanks again for your lovely ask and hope you have a good day. Thank you for your genuine interest and being so considerate! <3 <3

[echantedtoon]

Im Blue Ch9 A Captain's Mission P3

-Will contain a time skip-

It had been nearly a whole week since the incident that happened along the docks. And ...everything just seemed to go back to normal after that. The usual patrol routes all lined up that the crew and him would loop around maybe twice or three times a day, then there was the occasional beach problems of catching someone littering on the 'No Littering' beach, but that was an easy fix up to just pick up the trash disposed and give whoever had done it a stern talking too. There wasn't any more robberies, or emergencies, or accidents or-....Or anything like that really. The most exciting thing that happened in those seven days was saving a youngster that wondered too far away from the shallow end from the beach, luckily the child was alright. But of course he kept his guard up all those times as well. Asking around, having his crew keep a sharp watch with the sonar and from the deck, and doing regular underwater patrols near the sewer entrances where the criminals first came from. It was only on the eighth day he arrived at work did something finally happen. And it was finding the local police chef standing there is all his glory chatting with Sirius. Well what a surprise. As he approached they both looked up.

"Mr. Seruki. Woof," the dog headed man greeted turning to face him.

He nodded back. "Chief Kenji. What a surprise. I wasn't expecting the big man up top comin' all the way down here. I would say it's a pleasure seeing ya but I have a feeling this visit is anything but a social call."

To his credit he nodded confirming his suspensions. "And you'd be correct on that feeling I'm afraid." That certainly caught his attention as he stood back arms crossed and gave him his undivided attention. "I'm sure you remember the incident just a week before." He nodded. Of course he did. How could he have forgotten? "Well I came here to ask a favor of you."

"Oh?" He rose a brow arms crossed. "And what might that be?"

"We need your help in the retrieval of the sunken naval vessel that we're attempting to recover. Woof."

Well that certainly made his eyebrows raise higher as he hummed at him. "Mmm hmm. I see. ...And is there any particular reason to be doing that?"

"Certainly. Woof," Chief Kenji explained, "As you recall, last week two of the four ink gang villains were apprehended with thanks to your help. Unfortunately questioning them has gotten us no where. Which leads to our plan now...woof." Plan? Well that got his interest peeked. " We originally planned to go digging around in the sewers, but it's understandably a much more dangerous idea, so we thought we might as well lure them out into the open instead."

"And how do you think you'll do that?"

"By staging a trap of course. woof," he explained, "Word of our informants on the streets is that Innsmouth is desperate for money these days. Considering he hasn't shown himself yet makes us suspect he's biding his time waiting for a chance when we're not patrolling the waters for him. I don't think he is aware of the location of the sunken vessal yet which is why we suspect his lackies were attempting to steal that sonar equipment. They could've easily found it with that kind of technology. woof. Higher ups figured if we stage just a simple defenseless recovery team to reclaim the vessal, then we can lure him out."

"So you're plannin' on staging a fake recovery of this....ship to bring out the villain to you?" He sighed. "Seems like a plan but the question is what am I supposed to be protecting exactly? If I'm risking my life for something then I at least have the right to know what it is, Chief."

The chief nodded again. "I figured you would ask that. What we'll be retrieving is an experimental submerine that changes with it's environments."

........"Come again?"

''Some scienctists invented it. The outside acts like a mirror to help blend in with it surroundings better. They were hoping to use test it for future sea rescue operations but apparently something went wrong during the testing faze causing it to short circuit and sink in a deeper part off the coast line here. Woof. The only reason they haven't retrieved it yet is in fear someone like Innsmouth will steal it from them. Apparently the technology used to make it would make a fortune on the underground market if they can get their hands on it, which could be devastating in the wrong hands as I'm sure you realize."

That...That wasn't good at all. A thing like that in the wrong hands would most definately cause more problems than needed if someone like quirk drug pirates used it to smuggle goods or whatever else their minds come up with.

He nodded in understanding. "I see. Well then you have my crew's and I's full cooperation then! We couldn't let something like this happen. By the way when is this takin' place if you don't mind me asking?"

"Tomorrow night. Woof." The Chief turned and side stepped around him. "I trust you and your crew shall be ready and waiting for us as soon as the sun sets tomorrow. The stage will be set in what he hopefully believes will be a secret recovery. Woof. So best be on your guard until then."

He watched him go with a raised brow as he started off but nodded. "And you'll be doing what until then?"

"Same as you, preparing. But first I need to follow up on a small lose end to tie it all together. Woof."

***********************************************************************************************

She hadn't left the house.

Not once in that entire week had she left that house and you know what? Her grandmother didn't blame her one bit either. After all she was the one who insisted that Blue get out of the house for a little while and so it was her fault for putting the poor girl into the situation that got her into this mess to begin with. To say she was shocked to learn she had gotten herself lost and walked into two wanted villains stealing something and almost getting kidnapped by them must've been scary if not a little traumatizing. Not to mention the part where Blue mentioned that nosey reporter blasting her bare face all over tv against her wishes. Made her want to wack  that reporter over the man with her cane and knock some sense into him! Shame on him! And shame on her for letting all of this happened. She wanted Blue to be more independent and comfortable going out by herself. So much for that idea. After the day she got home a week ago, Blue had explained the entire thing, taken a long hot shower, and had barely come out of her room in fear someone would recognize her from TV or from the docks despite barely any customers coming in that week except some of her regulars. But it seemed to not matter to the frightened woman. At least she was starting to come out of her room now, but only to work. Right now even she was in the back room grinding up spices, plants, and tea leaves for his grandmother to bag and sell to customers. New bandages present on her face hiding the blind eyes underneath. She could hear the grinding noises from the grinding stone Blue was using at the moment in the back room as she manned the store front of their home, busy sweeping and cleaning away at everything. Despite all the plants growing around them she thought it was pretty decently clean thanks to her efforts. That was until the front door opened and the small bell above it went off. When she obviously turned her head up to greet whoever it was, she was a little taken aback. Standing in the door front was a tall man who looked about six foot, in a black suit and coat, .......and had a dog's head??? Must've been his quirk.

"Well hello there, Sir,'' she said leaning the broom against the wall with a smile at the man, "Welcome. How can I help you?"

He nodded towards her. "Good evening, Ma'am. Woof." Before looking around the place. And then looking back to her. "Pardon me for the sudden interruption." Reaching a hand back into his coat pocket, and pulled out a shiny gold plated metal star and some kind of driver's liscense looking thing next to it. "My name is Kenji, Miss. Woof. I'm the local chief of police around a few districts here." He put the liscence away.

A cop? And a chief of police no less?? Her face twisted to one of confusion and worry. Did she cause some kind of ruckus without knowing? "Oh my. May I ask what you're doing here then? I don't recall there being any problems I've caused."

"Not you, Miss. No. I'm looking for someone who goes by the name, Blue. Woof," he explained, "Quite an unusual name but I was told she takes up residency here."

The grinding noise from the back stopped and immediately her grandmother gave the man a scowl. "And what business does the law have with her or anyone in this home?"

He raised his hands in a non threatening pose. "Ma'am. I assure you I'm not here to cause trouble nor is anyone here in trouble either. "

"The what business DO you have here?"

"I'm afraid I'm not going to disclose-"

A hand slapping on the counter stopped him. "If it involves my granddaughter it involves me! Now what business would the chief of police have with a woman like her!? If you can't answer that you can leave unless you present me a warrant!!"

He sighed. This might be a problem. "I was hoping to perhaps interview her about her experiences with the villain last week and get her experiences-"

"NO! Absolutely not! She wouldn't know anything anyways!"

"I would like to ask her that myself. Woof. If there's anything she saw that-"

"SHE'S BLIND!!" An uncomfortable silence fell between the two of them as he just stared at the furious smaller woman for a long moment. Before she continued. "She couldn't have seen anything, and it takes you all a week to come in here to intimidate her into talking?" She shook her head before shaking her hands in a shoo motion. "No! Out! I'm sorry but she will not be seeing you today! Whatever is in your report with her is all you need!!"

"Ma'am please I-" He kept backing up blinking and being pushed back by the older woman until the bell dinged above him and he was stumbling back outside. 

"Unless you get a warrent for a witness report you can come back!," she shouted one last time before slamming the door back in his face and sighing. Turning back around and....pausing seeing the form of the younger woman. "Blue-" She went quiet when the girl went past her and to the door. Opening it as the officer was dusting himself off.

He paused when seeing the newer young lady standing there with bandages wrapped around her upper face holding the door open. "Mr. Kenji?"

".....Woof. Ms. Chan?" he asked and she nodded. "Oh good. I wanted to ask-"

"I don't know anything," she mentioned cutting him off as he stared. "I can't see anything to help you and I didn't hear anything either. You came here for nothing. I'm sorry. I would really just like to be left alone now. I don't want anything else to do with what happened. Please......Have a nice day."

He stared after her as she turned and walked back into the home before turning around and walked away. Blue's grandmother gave her a sad look as she walked her way back towards the back room sighing as she did so and shaking her head. Her poor girl. Hopefully this will be her last bad run in for a while....Although she had a strange feeling something was lingering underneath.

[pluckyredhead]

Just so you know, Devin Grayson’s issues with Romani and Navajo representation and her treatment of the sexual assault storyline with Dick are not the only reasons people dislike her. She wrote a book for DC that involved Oliver Queen making really creepy comments about Dick and Roy (and implied that he thinks both Dick and Roy are hot and that there’s a reason why people like to speculate about sidekicks and their mentors having relationships) and is a known brudick shipper. I’d say she still doesn’t deserve the amount of hate that she gets from people compared to her male counterparts, but there’s definitely reasons that she icks some people out.

Okay, but this is sort of proving my point? Like, those lines she gave to Ollie are WEIRD and I don't like them, and I'm not thrilled that they're in something official from DC, even if it's not canon canon. But this is also a really obscure novel that was published 16 years ago, has been out of print for I'd guess well over a decade, and which almost no one has read. And yet we're going out of our way to dig up "proof" that she should be hated, and it's circulated by people who have never seen the primary sources and often haven't read any comics at all. (Not you personally anon, I have no idea what you have and haven't read.)

Also, I just don't care if she ships BruDick. Like, I don't care. I wouldn't be happy if she put it in the comics (which DC would never allow), but I'm not going to condemn her for her private thoughts. She's also far from the only writer to allude to this, dating back decades - even Burt Ward, of all people, said it was a potential reading! I don't ship it, but Devin Grayson did not invent BruDick.

More importantly, where is this energy for the male writers who vastly outnumber her? Devin gets shit for writing a story where Dick was assaulted that was not handled as well as it could have been, but Marv Wolfman wrote a story where Dick was assaulted that was played for laughs, including having his teammate call him a slut, and I have never once seen posts circulating about how terrible Marv Wolfman is.

Where is this energy for Scott Lobdell, who is a confessed sexual harasser? Where is this energy for Chuck Dixon, who has gone fully alt-right? Where is this energy for Warren Ellis, who has been accused of sexual misconduct by over 60 people? And if you didn't know about those things, but you did know about everything Devin Grayson is accused of - none of which is anywhere close to this level of actively trying to hurt real people - why do you think that is? I know what my theory is.

I've been reading comics for 20 years, and I have been hearing vitriol against Devin Grayson - including things that turned out to be quite cruel lies - that whole time. Again, I'm not saying she has never made a mistake, or that I like every choice she's made, and I'm certainly not saying that you need to be a fan of hers if you aren't. You get to make your own decisions about whose writing you want to engage with and whose you don't.

But the discrepancy between the treatment she gets (and other female writers to a lesser extent) and the pass that is given to so many men who have done so much worse will always piss me off. That's all.

[katyspersonal]

Gherman and Eileen (and if neither are available/you want, Micolash <3) for the character bingo :)

Hahaha, no man, never give me a right to choose! Because I will always chose all. Because I always have something to say. And if I don't, I obtain an opinion as I go because I am unhinged dfsdgh

Gehrman

If this isn't my favourite character to discuss... :smh:

I only mention how terribly he was treated in every second post about him, the dude can shake hands with Chara Undertale on having the character ruined by fandom for fandom for years. xD I started swinging between 'You can have an unflattering interpretation of the character, just quit mocking and accusing people who disagree' and 'Actually no, forget it. It is not even an "interpretation", it is outright lore-inaccurate and tone-deaf and wrong. Why I should be 'okay' with you ruining a cool character? Sure, shoving away the actual character and replacing them with what you want to see is not BAD, but it is not GOOD either. How would you feel if I completely overlooked lore and portrayal of male characters you love, for example Djura, and replaced them with a punching bag for all my grudges with the sexism this wretched world commits? Would you people be cool with that?'.

I am under obligation of being 'understanding' because, honestly, the real villain here is localisation team that turned the whole angle of perceiving the guy over - that made it easier to ignore/misinterpret the shit load of other evidence for his case. Can't easily recall victorian mourning dolls, or that when Doll held an ornament full of his feelings - she cried in joy and compassion, not staggered in disgust, after the gross comment they put in his mouth, huh? Hire fans 👏

Nonetheless, the character is pretty interesting for many reasons, and it did feel a bit odd for me that he says like... one thing and then disappears for interaction. I don't even know where does he keep disappearing as a person stuck on wheelchair? *squints at Flora very loudly* I cannot pick him as THE best character because he at the very least shares the place with Maria, Micolash and Djura - and that's just my opinion! But he certainly just has so much going on about him, having had guts to commit to a horrible fate for the sake of humanity and out of his faith in Healing Church, all that. There are just so many things about him? Training the hunters and starting a workshop, combining ruthless traits and tragedy and tender love too. (Also aesthetic alone is immaculate).

Eileen

Annnnnd it is a bit funny that after the most controversial character, you listed the least controversial one... xd There are just no ways to mess Eileen up, really. No bad fandom trends, no questionable ships, no off the mark opinions, like... you have to be diabolically inventive to mess up EILEEN of all characters? She is a bit of a fresh air as a character who is basically perfect and there aren't things to disagree on :')

And I honestly think she is one of the most needed characters for the overall setting, and the coolest way to execute a concept - because someone SHOULD be out there mercy-killing blood-drunk hunters! Besides beak mask seems to be her original one, so perhaps she was a plague doctor before, and thus no stranger to mercy-killing before Yharnam? She is just so grim, yet so sympathetic. Drama potential with Crow of Cainhurst? Awesome. But, I am yet to find a very cool justification as to why she only goes blood-drunk in the scenario where we never interact with her? Like... what butterfly effect did we cause? I feel like there is a fantastic explanation for what could have gone depending on us, that is right here but I am not seeing it @_@

There is no unpopular opinion field though, however I think that the fact that Hunter of Hunters seems to be a "hostile" concept to the League is underexplored? Oath runes logic (like Beast's Embrace vs Kin and Corruption vs Radiance), also Valtr himself seems blood drunk? And she sounds as if she's been waiting for an excuse to kill Henryk? However both her and League pursue 'gone wrong' hunters, so maybe they have rivarly over who kills them? Do they fight over whether to bury them with an honour or rip their guts in search of some bug she can't even see? I need something aaaaaa

Micolash

This IS my favorite character yooooo

I can go on about him forever, and in fact I kinda sorta did in lore and headcanons posts now? I would not say he got done 'dirty' by the fandom, more like... could have been better? Not to downvote anyone's uploads, but finding more or less model accurate fanart of the guy can be more challenging than it should be? I often see him all prettied-up, with slick straight hair (and sometimes that one anime 'ahoge' strand), with wider/stronger chin instead of his sharp weak one, smug face that is anything but his tired/eerie look, sometimes hair is brown...

It is not 'done dirty' but rather, 'if your Micolash looks at least somewhat creepy/uncomfy/unattractive, you are doing it right'. Similar with personality and portrayal, maybe it is my not-enough-fanfics-read sorry ass speaking but I feel like the fact that dude is mentally unstable, crazy, ran a literal madcult responsible for kidnapping and mutilating/reviving corpses and is stuck in the nightmare of his own desire is... overlooked? He is often portrayed as just a quirky funny guy obsessed with books that is not dangerous at all, even though he is easily THE most evil character? Right, making character worse makes my blood boil *looks in Gehrman's general direction*, but making character better...? It just makes me... confused? I am not angry, I just don't know why? Again, if your portrayal of Micolash is at least somewhat repulsive - you are doing it right x)

Well as you can tell already I have my issues with the character, but I also love him for the reasons hard to explain? It is complexity, depth, the context of the character (terminal stage of falling for the hubris, but researcher rather than cruel hunter), voice acting in either language, eccentric behaviour, him being fucking funny but you shiver if you actually THINK about him, him being such a nerd that he's the only NPC without a real weapon (only magic spells), he is just so PERFECT - both for the setting and as a tragic figure that fell from the grace as a scholar and KEEPS falling. From moral standpoint I am supposed to hate him, but he broke the limits of humanity and morality so far away that my typical measures no longer apply?

(And yes, I am adopting him because the guy clearly needs a mom figure :pensive: Everyone wants him to be Bad and Quirky on them, but who will give him a motherly hug and tell him he can rest from despair for now? /lh )

[sanjixd]

Sanji and Nami(psychology)

My blog is dedicated to the psychology of anime (mostly OP). In this post I want to tell you briefly about the pairs/ships of One Piece. As we already know that ships in One Piece are a common topic and every day a lot of fans of one or another couple post hundreds of posts dedicated to this couple. One of them is the pairs "Luffy x Nami" and "Sanji x Nami". There are also many other couples like Zoro x Robin, Frankie x Robin, Sanji x Pudding and so on, but about them in other posts. There will be a long post, have fun reading.

To begin with, I would like to recall ships from famous franchises and why I think it would be more logical to bring Sanji and Nami together. We remember Hermione from Harry Potter, who chose not the main character, but Ron. We remember Sakura from Naruto who chose not the main character, but Sasuke. Again, we recall Rukia from Bleach, who chose not the main character, but Renji. From all these thoughts that swept through my head, I made a decision that these pairs are really logical. Even if there were not many moments between them, they still have a share of psychology. And can all this hint to us that it will happen in one piece. The reason why I ship Sanji and Nami is probably this and I think that Luffy and Nami just don't fit together. So why don't they fit together?

In fact, the answer is simple, they can't get along together. Nami as a person belongs to the category of demanding and thinking (obsessive), and Luffy belongs to the category of acting (compulsive). If the obsessive will think, then the compulsive will act. If the obsessive invents a technique, the compulsive will quickly master it. Luffy as a guy who dreams of becoming a pirate king should get a lot of apes, and Nami as a girl who wants to draw a map of the world should have a calm and quiet world. Luffy does not know how to sit in one place and Nami have to manipulate him to get his way. Also, while Nami likes to stay in the ship and prefers a quiet world, but Luffy shouts "adventure" at every step. Nami, as an older sister, has to always oppress him so that he obeys. We need someone who will just listen and fulfill her wish. Sanji does not hesitate to get down to work and does what the lady wants, and the lady is certainly happy. And now you could argue that love and fidelity are important in marriage. Of course, love and loyalty are also important, but if people don't suit each other, then it's better to just get divorced than to start World War III. And if people approach each other, then they instantly fall in love. Sanji as a person belongs to the category of obsessive-compulsive, that is, in the middle of these two there is a certain balance. If he falls in love with someone, he will be more compulsive (there is still an obsessive side), and if he falls out of love, everything will be the opposite. Luffy needs a girl who is just nice, kind and loves him (and of course that he also loves her). Nami need someone who will listen to her, accept her and love her (of course she does too). If Luffy and Nami did not show their affection or love for anyone, then we have already seen it from Sanji. He has repeatedly reminded why he loves Nami (because of how willingly nami wanted to protect the children) and even in dreams Sanji dreams of getting respect from Nami.

Not any other girl, not Robin, not Pudding, not Viola, but Nami. It's no secret that Sanji loves women like hell. Question. Won't it prevent him from building a relationship, he loves all women? Absolutely not. If a person is a gentleman, it does not mean that he cannot build a relationship with a girl who is very important to him. Nami as a person really appreciates that Sanji likes to help her so willingly.

We've sorted it out. One question remains. What about the rest of the ships from other franchises? Hermione couldn't stay with Harry because she wants to be the perfect, all-knowing girl. And Harry, without the skills of anything, easily became the chosen one. While Hermione would have remained in Harry's shadow. She needs a guy who's easy to manage, and this is Ron. Harry preferred a sweet, kind, positive girl Ginny. Besides, Ginny wouldn't have been a bully at every turn. Besides, Ginny wouldn't have bullied him at every turn. Sakura didn't stay with Naruto because Naruto is spoiled. We all remember his honorable sexy jutsu and how Sakura didn't like it. Rukia didn't choose Ichigo because she noticed something special between Ichigo and Orihime. Ichigo, like all his previous partners, chose a quiet, sweet girl. Again, no one will judge your every step. Figured out why these girls didn't choose the main character. Can this happen with OP? I think so. But who knows what kind of cockroaches are in Oda's head :D

[coralcatsea]

A: Your current OTP.

Arthur with either Gilbert or Alfred.

B: A pairing you initially didn’t consider but someone changed your mind.

PrUK, EngGer, RUKUS, Americano, AmeLiet, PruLiet. Feel free to ask me why!

C: A pairing you wish you shipped, but just can't.

I don't wish I shipped anything.

D: What was the first thing you ever contributed to a fandom?

Roleplaying, I think.

E: Have you added anything stupid/cracky/hilarious to your fandom, if so, what?

I came up with the crack ship France x Yzma, drew a picture, and occasionally try to promote it for no reason.

F: What’s the longest you’ve ever been in a fandom? What fandom was it?

I've been in Hetalia for ten years now. Never left.

G: What was your first fandom?

Tokyo Mew Mew, if only roleplaying it with my own friends I already knew in real life counts. If not, then Hetalia.

H: Do you prefer real-life TV shows or animated TV shows?

Animated.

I: Has Tumblr caused you to stop liking any fandoms, if so, which and why?

No, but they certainly make some of my ships look bad.

J: Name a fandom you didn’t care/think about until you saw it all over Tumblr.

Good Omens.

K: How do you feel about the other people in your current fandom(s).

They're like people in any other fandom. Some fun, some frustrating.

L: Your favourite fanartist/author gives you one request, what do you ask for?

Art of my redesigned version of fem England. OR art of fem PrUK with my redesign of fem England and canon fem Prussia. OR art of fem USUK with my redesign of fem England and my redesign of fem America. I would be...😍🥺✨

Then, for fanfiction...PrUK or PrUKUS smut with England topping. 👌

M: A person who got you into a fandom and what fandom they pulled you in to.

My cousin got me into Hetalia.

N: Your favourite fandom (for the people; not the thing you fangirl over).

Hetalia. So many unique styles, so many AUs, so much creativity. It's not perfect, but no fandom is.

O: Choose a song at random, what ship does it remind you of?

[Insert random song] [insert OTP because I'll imagine them to anything]

P: Invent a random AU for any fandom (we always need more ideas).

Disney Fairies/Hetalia crossover

Q: A ship you’ve abandoned and why.

Giripan because I never really found justification of chemistry. They make good friends, but I don't see many depictions of them as such, let alone lovers.

R: A pairing you ship that you don’t think anyone else ships.

There's always at least one person who also ships even my rarer ships, but the hardest to find content for is stuff like PrUKUS and PrUKmano.

S: What's a headcanon you have?

Arthur LOVES the ocean. Maybe an unpopular opinion, but I don't care. Dangerous or not, he finds it fascinating.

T: What are your favourite male/male ships or female/female ships?

USUK, PrUK, EngGer, Engmano.

I don't really have Hetalia female/female ships unless you count the same ships when they're all girls, which of course includes EngBela. But non-Hetalia? Raven Queen x Apple White has been growing on me. I kind of like Catradora and Scorptra, but I also have mixed feelings on them and feel they should probably get therapy first.

U: What are your favourite male/female ships?

EngBela, AmeBela, Link x Midna, Flynn x Rapunzel, Entrapdak...

V: Do you have any 3-way ships? If so, what?

PrUKUS, PrUKmano, PrUKGer, USUKBela, GerUKUS, AmeLietmano.

W: 5 favourite characters from 5 different fandoms.

- Groose from Skyward Sword

- Carmen and Devineaux from Carmen Sandiego (they're tied, okay)

- Shego from Kim Possible

- Eda from Owl House

- Entrapta, Catra, and Scorpia from SPoP (another tie)

X: 3 OTPs from 3 different fandoms.

Aaravos x Viren 😂

Saiki x Coffee Jelly

I kind of like InoTanZen or whatever it's called from Kimetsu no Yaiba.

Y: A fandom you’re in but have no ships from.

Attack on Titan.

Z: What's a ship that you want to ship publicly, but everyone on Tumblr hates it so you keep your mouth shut about it?

I sometimes feel like USUK has to be shared secretly in a dark alley since it's so **problematique** 😆

Antis really believe their perspective/interpretation of a relationship between fictional landmasses is the only one that exists. They're convinced it gives them a free pass to act morally superior and insult people just because they're mad it's getting attention. In the end, though, that says more about them than it does me, and I have nothing to be ashamed of so long as I act like a reasonable individual.

[penguinwithitsarseonfire]

This Night is Sparkling, Don't You Let it Go

Pairing: Eleventh Doctor x Reader

Word Count: 3,535

Warnings: Mentions of the Hiroshima atomic bombing

Summary: During a snow storm (at sea!), and, in an attempt to assuage the Doctor in a moment of boredom, you teach him how to fold an origami crane. Clara, meanwhile, plans a movie night.

A/N: Some important context - Reader is aware of and refers to the story of Sadako Sasaki and, because of this, reader also knows how to fold a paper crane.

It was snowing. At sea.

Your hands were curled around the railing of the ship, and you were standing on your tip toes, leaning forward and looking towards the sky in wonder. The Doctor pondered on whether you had ever actually seen snow at sea before, if you had ever consciously thought of it as a thing that happened. So many humans, he had found, had never realised it snowed at sea, which was strange to him.

Of course it snows at sea, he’d once told Albert Einstein, wearing a different face in a different life, the weather doesn’t just stop because there’s no land.

He thought about this, so he wouldn’t think of other things.

Like the way your eyes sparkled against the star light – there were so many stars here, and it had been far too long since the Doctor had seen Earth’s night sky without light pollution. Your eyes were bright, in that special way that was just so distinctly you. You held so much appreciation, so much joy, in everything the Doctor showed you, and it seemed to radiate off of you.

Hence how you were now, swaying with the ship and looking at the surrounding area with so much awe.

“This is magical,” you said softly, and the Doctor wasn’t sure if he was supposed to have heard it. He was sure that if he was human, he wouldn’t have.

He had to agree though, ‘magical’ certainly was the word for it.

The snow fell, painted into your hair, dusted across the bridge of your nose, and settled against your jacket. He wanted to reach out his hand and brush it off of you, swipe his thumb across your cheek and rest his palm against your jaw.

He turned away from you, swallowing harshly. These were the kind of thoughts he wasn’t supposed to be having.

You were human. Impossibly young, especially compared to him.

And yet…

The Doctor drummed his fingers against the railing, staring out at the view. From this angle, he couldn’t see anything else except the snow, dancing against the inky black sea.

He had known this would be something you would enjoy, which was part of the reason why he had decided to land on this ship. Monitoring the convoy was just an afterthought compared to the delight you now had over snow at sea.

It was harmless, wasn’t it? To do things that made you happy. He wanted everyone he cared for to be happy, not just you. Why, just last week (well, comparatively, since time was a relative construct to him), he had devoted an entire itinerary to things Clara wanted to do.

It had ended with her trying to fight Sigmund Freud, physically fight him – like some sort of rabid beast, and the Doctor had elected to maybe reviewing her itineraries beforehand for now on. At least to make sure they were less violent.

He couldn’t explain the why’s or the how’s, but, with you though, it felt different.

Well, he could most certainly explain it, but to do so would mean to think about it, and he couldn’t think about it.

He tapped his foot against the metal tiling. If he only had something to do, beyond watching and waiting, and waiting and watching, he wouldn’t even have to entertain these thoughts.

No, it would have been far better if he were busy, then he wouldn’t be thinking any of these things at all.

God he was bored.

Behind him, the Doctor heard the door to bridge swung open. He leaned the left side of his body into the rail, so he could half turn around and see who had just come out.

Clara, brilliant, wonderful Clara, popped her head out through the open doorway. She eyed the two of you, giving the Doctor a questioning look. He shook his hand subtly, in a ‘don’t ask’ gesture, and in response Clara pursed her lips.

“Oi, you two,” she said, and in the corner of his eye, the Doctor saw you jump and turn around.

“Bit of warning next time, could you?” You breathed out, and you rubbed a hand against your chest, the place where you heart was.

“Well, I don’t mean to go all nanny on you,” Clara continued, ignoring you. “But you’re both going to catch a cold if you stand out there any longer.”

“Nah not me,” The Doctor said, leaning against the rail nonchalantly. If his elbow lightly brushed against your arm, it wasn’t of any consequence. “I’m a Time Lord, a little bit of snow is nothing.”

“I don’t care,” Clara said. “Inside. Both of you. Now.”

You turned to face the Doctor, quirking your lips up slightly as you shrugged. “Well, I don’t know about you, but I for one am not bold enough to argue with Clara.”

“And that’s why you’re smarter than he is,” Clara replied, nodding towards the Doctor when she called him out.

You laughed lightly, brushing some of the snow out of your hair and off of your shoulders as you walked towards the doorway. You had gone ahead of the Doctor, and were well inside the bridge by the time the Doctor reached Clara, grumbling the entire way.

Clara pulled him aside as he entered. “You need to tell Y/N,” she said tersely.

The Doctor waved a hand at her, and brushed some of the snow off of his pants. “There’s nothing to tell.”

Clara snorted, pulling the door closed. “Uh huh, yeah, sure. And those googly eyes you make are ‘nothing’ too.”

“Exactly.”

Clara rolled her eyes. “You’re impossible, you know that, right?”

The Doctor paused, eyeing Clara curiously. “Hm.”

Out of the two of them, the Doctor wouldn’t consider himself to be the impossible one here.

Clara raised an eyebrow at him. “What?”

“You know,” The Doctor said, streamlining around that particular thought. “f I had a penny for every time someone had told me that, I could afford a ticket to see Hamilton.”

“What’s Hamilton?”

“Before your time, Oswald,” The Doctor strode past her. “Give it a couple of years, you’ll find it hilarious.”

The Doctor and Clara reached the mess hall, where you were sitting at a table with Captain Carter, the one in charge of this whole mission. There was a collection of different small square pieces of paper scattered across the table between the two of you.

“How long until we reach the base?” The Doctor asked, sauntering in as if he owned the place. It was important to behave with confidence, after all.

Captain Carter raised a subtle eyebrow, either not believing his act (which wasn’t an act, not really. It was more of an exaggerated performance), or just wasn’t impressed by it. “Another day, at the earliest. However, with all this snow it might be two.”

The Doctor slumped into the seat beside you, and Clara went over to the kitchen. “Is there anything pressing to do then?” She asked. “Because I was thinking of doing a movie night, otherwise.”

Captain Carter pondered this for a moment. “I think a movie night would be a good idea,” they said. “Help entertain the crew.”

“Ah yes, this ship is sorely lacking entertainment,” The Doctor rubbed his fingers against his temple. “I can’t remember the last time I was this bored.”

Captain Carter scoffed, and ran their hand through their cropped hair. “Well, Doctor,” they said, standing from the table. “I’ll be sure to find something entertaining for you.” They stalked off, motioning for Clara to follow.

The Doctor almost gawked, he hadn’t meant for that to happen.

Maybe they would actually organise a movie night, though.

Clara eyed him for a moment, mouthing ‘be nice’ to him. The Doctor screwed up his face and she rolled her eyes at him, following Captain Carter out, but not before she added ‘tell Y/N’.

The Doctor huffed and turned back around. He didn’t know what Clara was talking about.

You picked up a sheet of paper, focusing on it instead of him. God, he wanted you to look at him. “You offended them,” you said, almost offhandedly.

The Doctor slumped into his seat further, and tried to convince himself that he wasn’t moping. “I didn’t mean to.”

You gave him an amused smirk, those brilliant eyes twinkling in mirth. “You’re pouting.”

“I am not.”

The smirk grew into a grin, and he couldn’t help but smile back. “Are too.”

The Doctor leaned his elbow against the table, and rested his head against his closed fist. “Maybe I am, but only a little bit,” with his other hand he gestured to the paper. “What’re you doing here?”

“Thought I’d make a couple of paper cranes,” you replied, and then, hesitantly, added. “I could show you, if you’d like?”

The Doctor knew how to fold a paper crane. He knew eighteen different ways to fold one, some of which hadn’t even been invented yet. Logically, he should have told you this.

He didn’t.

“I’d love that.”

You pulled your chair closer to him, dragging it with your legs whilst you were still sitting in it. Your thigh brushed against his leg, and the Doctor found himself instinctually repositioning himself, drawing himself closer to you.

You took two identical pieces of paper, placing one in front of the Doctor and holding the other one for yourself. You laid your piece of paper flat against the wooden table, lining it up with the grain. It was quite a pretty piece of paper, as far as paper went. It was decorated in a swirling pattern, inked in silver that seemed to shine in the light. The colour of the paper, he noticed, was the same as your eyes.

That shouldn’t have been something he noticed.

No, it was fine. He was just being observant.

You began folding it, and the Doctor watched your nimble fingers easily crease the paper, like you had done this a million times. You nodded for him to do the same.

“There’s this story that goes along with paper cranes,” you told him, your voice soft. Your head was bowed towards him, almost as if you didn’t want anyone else to hear you. “It’s about a girl called Sadako Sasaki, have you heard of it?”

“I haven’t,” the Doctor lied. “Would you tell it?”

You gave him a soft smile, your eyes shining under the fluorescent lights – how many different ways could they sparkle? Would he ever be able to count them all? “I’d be glad to,” you said, and then, after a moment. “It’s quite a sad story, though.”

He knew.

“Well any story can be a sad story,” The Doctor said. “It depends on where you end them.”

You cocked you head to the side slightly, agreeing with him, then turned back to your page. “I’ll finish it in the right spot then.”

You pulled your piece of paper open, inspecting the various creases you’d folded into the paper, then began folding them into triangles. “She was 2 years old when the nuclear bomb was dropped on Hiroshima at the end of World War II,” you began, your voice impossibly quiet, remorseful in that sort of way that was just so distinctly human. “She lived through it, and by the time she was 12, she was her schools star runner.

“Then she contracted leukemia,” you continued, and your crane looked a bit like a large bird beak. “It happened so suddenly. One day she was running around her school’s oval during a practise – or maybe it was a race, and she passed out. At the time she said that little black spots had clouded her vision, and she hadn’t known what was happening.

“Back then they called it atomic bomb disease, because it was most likely caused by the radioactive black rain that fell on Hiroshima the day of the bombing,” You stopped your movements suddenly, staring at the folded piece of paper. You blinked at it a couple of times, and the Doctor wanted to reach out and hold you.

Before he could however, you continued. “Anyway,” you said, and started folding once more. “There’s this legend that a crane can live for a thousand years, so if a person folds an origami crane for each year of a crane’s life, then they can have a wish granted. Sadako heard of this legend and decided she would do this and try to save her life.

“She did it too. Within a month she had a thousand, and she wished to be better,” you looked at the Doctor for a moment. “It didn’t come true though, so she started again. She managed to make another 300 before she passed.”

Your crane looked like a crown, the kind they wore on Lopargos in the 27th century. “She’s famous because of how her classmates honoured her. They built a statue in her honour, and Sadako’s story sort of spread all around the world.

“The paper crane,” you folded down its wings. “Became a symbol of peace, since it’s symbolic status grew in direct contrast of cruelty,” you held your crane up for the Doctor to view, and he noticed that you had even folded a tiny little head for it. “There we go, ended the story in the right spot.”

“So you did,” the Doctor smiled softly at you. “Where’d you learn to do that?”

“I learned it with the Sadako’s story,” you told him, and you fiddled with the tail of the crane, as if debating whether or not you wanted to fold the tail down.

“So you’ve made a thousand then? What did you wish for?”

You didn’t answer, instead setting the crane down and reaching across the table to get another sheet of paper. It was decorated in the same silver pattern, but it’s base was a deep olive green colour. The Doctor tried not to read into that particular choice.

“Anyway,” you said. “Once you fold them enough, it becomes an easy habit, and it’s especially good when you’re bored,” you looked at him knowingly, then glanced at his paper. “Oh Doctor I’m so sorry! I hadn’t realised that I didn’t explain any of the instructions to you.”

The Doctor looked down to his paper and hummed, he hadn’t realised that he hadn’t actually touched it. Suddenly, your hands were on his, and he was acutely aware of your proximity to one another. You had moved closer to him, so close that he could hear your heartbeat – a steady, grounding rhythm. “Here,” you said. “Let me show you in a better way.”

You began giving him directions on how to fold a paper crane, guiding his hands with yours. You were well into his space, which you had to be, for practical reasons, so you could show him how to do it.

“Aren’t you a thousand years old?” You asked, whilst opening the paper to take note of the creases, your voice impossibly quiet.

The Doctor almost scoffed. “I’m well over it by now.”

You hummed. “I wonder how many people have sent you wishes, then,” you said absentmindedly, as if to yourself. It probably was to yourself, but the Doctor, for all his flaws, had exceptional hearing.

The thought drilled itself into the Doctor’s head. That would come to haunt him later.

You bumped your head against his and it pulled him out of those thoughts. The Doctor could smell the shampoo you used, it was fruity and light – he wondered if it was new. You had resumed your directions and he tried to concentrate on what you were saying, he really did, but you were just so close, and you looked back up to him with those big eyes, and he just could quite concentrate.

Your hands were warm against his, and your fingers expertly worked at the paper with his in tow. The Doctor counted the little marks on top of your hands, the lines that were creased into your skin, the little scars that decorated them from adventures you had taken together as well as your life before him. He wanted to memorise them, every line, every spot, and the way that they moved, keep it locked safe somewhere in his memory.

You huffed suddenly, or perhaps not suddenly, the Doctor hadn’t been paying attention, after all. “Wait, okay, I can’t actually see what I’m doing for the next bit,” you looked up at him. “Do you mind?”

The Doctor shook his head and you stood slowly, gently circling your body around his and leaning your head on his shoulder. The Doctor swallowed, trying to ignore the way your body felt against his own, warm, and solid, and there – right there. This felt so much different to whenever he had hugged you, or when you had held his hand, but he couldn’t pinpoint why.

Well, no. He knew exactly why. It was to do with the intimacy, it was new and different, and so much harder to rule off as friendly affection.

He scratched that thought out of his mind.

“There’s a bit of a trick here that I like to do…” your voice was low and soft in his ear and The Doctor shuddered slightly. He hoped that you didn’t notice, or, if you did, you just equated it to him just being… well, him.

There wasn’t any other deeper meaning to it, after all.

All to soon you had both finished folding the crane, and you pulled back slightly with a satisfied smile. “There we go, your very own paper crane.”

It sat there small and proud, albeit a bit lopsided. One wing was slightly bigger than the other, but the Doctor already knew that he adored it.

“Ah see now that right there,” the Doctor said, grinning at it. “Is a very cool crane.”

“Well of course it is,” you replied. “We made it, after all -oh.”

You pulled your hands from him and the Doctor paused – where were you going? With a frown, you were looking at your index finger. You considered something for a moment, then popped it into your mouth. The Doctor followed your movements, his mouth suddenly very, very dry.

“Papercut,” you explained, sticking your finger out. “Surely there’s a bandage somewhere.”

“I’ve got one,” a voice said, and the pair of you jumped. Clara was standing by the door to the mess hall, pulling a small bandage out of her pocket. The Doctor ran through the events that had just happened, and couldn’t work out when she had come back.

Clara stalked towards you both, and, judging by the very self-satisfyied smirk she was sending the Doctor’s way, she had been there for a while. She handed you the bandage and eyed the paper crane. “That’s cool.”

“Yeah,” you said, peeling off the wrapper and twisting the bandage over your cut. “I just taught the Doctor how to make one.”

Clara turned to the Doctor, raising an eyebrow at him. You, of course, didn’t notice this, as you were too engrossed in actually fixing your papercut.

“Oh,” she said, because she knew full well that the Doctor knew how to fold a paper crane. She had been there when The Doctor had gotten into an origami competition with Arnold Schwarzenegger, and had won by folding a paper crane faster than Arnold had. “Well, that’s nice now, isn’t it.”

“Yeah,” you smiled earnestly at them both, then inspected the bandage again. “It might actually do something about that boredom now.”

Clara narrowed her eyes at him, and the Doctor wanted to protest. When she spoke the Doctor had no doubt that it was a challenge. “Oh I’m sure it will.”

You turned back to Clara, completely oblivious to what was going on. “How’d that idea for a movie night go?”

“Oh!” Clara turned back to you, completely dropping her attitude and giving you a small smile. She lifted up a set of DVD’s. “Captain Carter has gotten some people to get some popcorn, we’ve been tasked with finding some pillows and chairs.”

You looked around the mess hall, eyeing the myriad of chairs. “Well, seems like we’re in as good a place to start as any. Shall we get to it?”

Clara placed the DVD’s on the table. “Yeah, lets.”

You squeezed the Doctor’s shoulder as you and Clara went off to begin gathering chairs. The Doctor stole a glance at the DVD’s, and he swore if he’d been alone he would have laughed out loud.

Presently though, he chose to silently mope.

The Princess Bride.

The Doctor thought of the innocent pretending at the start of the film, of the extreme effort Westley goes for his true love, and how there were probably parallels to his own life if he chose to think about it.

Of course Clara had chosen that film.

He put the DVD to the side. No, he wasn’t going to think of any of those parallels right now.

“Doctor,” you called out from the other side of the mess hall, holding a chair in the air. “Are you going to help?”

He crossed his arms and eyed the film one more time. “Yes, of course,” he said, looking up at you. “As you wish.”

Re; the update: I just wanted to thank everyone for the well wishes, I’ve read them all and they’ve all been so sweet. Things have gotten a bit worse, so the messages have meant the world to me. My inbox has eaten a few of them, but I’ll respond to as many of the messages as I can when i have the time! Thanks ❤️

[agentfrostbite]

It's Saturday and I'm in the mood, so let's talk about Elijah Kamski

Specifically about how he treats his Chloes. Obviously this is an opinion, and everyone is entitled to theirs, but as I read Chlonnor ship fics (they are adorable and I am unrepentant), I notice that a lot of them have Chloe becoming a deviant after Connor chooses not to shoot her. I don't have a problem with this, per se, but I have noticed several things in game that makes me think she's already a deviant.

1. The other two Chloes are already deviant

It's a small detail that tends to get overlooked because you're busy focusing on meeting Elijah and "OMG, Amanda's dead??" and later whether or not Connor actually shot Chloe. But these two girls right here?

They're talking. They're chatting with each other. I know that doesn't sound like much, but look back on the rest of the game thus far. Androids that aren't deviant don't converse with other androids because there's no reason they should. They have a job, and unless they're being addressed by a human, that job doesn't involve talking. You know who does converse? Deviants. Additionally, they're just lounging in the pool, and I guess that Kamski could have ordered them in there because he doesn't like swimming alone/likes to swim with his Chloes/some other potentially creepier thing, but it feels a little too natural for that.

2. Kamski pushes Connor toward his own decision

Looking back on the scene, it's clear that Kamski is trying to force Connor into making the choice of whether or not to shoot Chloe, against Connor's will. He directly pits Connor's programming against his collected software instabilities to see which is stronger. Yes, he is a scientist, first and foremost, so he's gathering data through his test, but I think he's strongly leaning towards - and pushing Connor towards - a pro-deviant standpoint.

His dialogue throughout the scene puts longer, more emotional, emphatic language on the idea of deviancy and the free will of androids - specifically of Connor. He pushes Connor to attempt an answer outside his programming ("Well, that's what you're programmed to say... but you...what do you really want?") and he places special emphasis on Connor's individuality ("Decide who you are. An obedient machine... Or a living being endowed with free will...") in the critical moment just before Connor decides whether or not to shoot.

That, combined with the fact that the two Chloes in the pool are conversing - and at this point, watching the scene, one notably with a concerned/uncertain look as she turns back around - tells me that Kamski is supportive of the idea of deviants.

3. Kamski closes off and expresses almost negative emotion if Connor does choose to shoot Chloe

If Connor decides that his mission is more important than Chloe and shoots, Kamski's attitude makes a definite shift. Where earlier he was toying with Hank and Connor, giving cryptic answers and sidestepping the main issue they were there to discuss, after Chloe is shot, he switches to straight answers and short replies.

Additionally, this post by @omentrash​ highlights Kamski's obviously upset expression when Connor chooses to shoot Chloe. Call it what you like, but to me, this says he absolutely did not want Connor to fire.

4. No matter what route you choose, Kamski tells Connor about the emergency exit

In any situation where Connor ends up in a place of partial or total deviancy, Amanda resumes control of his program and traps him in the white-out blizzard Zen Garden. In this case, the only way for Connor to escape is to use the emergency exit. But he only knows about it because Kamski goes out of his way to inform Connor of it (and we'll get to the ramifications of Kamski knowing about Connor having it later).

Obviously in the deviant best ending, Connor uses this to avoid shooting Markus and the surviving Jericrew in the back, and most of the time, this ending was preceded by Connor deciding not to shoot Chloe. So yes, it makes sense that Kamski would inform him about a way out, should something like what Amanda does happen to him. But he also tells Connor about it if Connor does shoot Chloe, which lets us know that Kamski is hoping that perhaps Connor will deviate somewhere later down the line. He didn't do it here, but he might when faced with the same situation at a future time. Kamski is looking out for Connor, even though Connor isn't a deviant yet, because Kamski has hope that he might become one.

5. Deviants are capable of acting like normal androids

I include this one to illustrate that just because Chloe appears to be a perfect hostess here

and shows no emotion when faced with life or death doesn't mean that she's not a deviant. We know that deviants can, when necessary, act like normal androids. Markus and North do it at Stratford. (Specifically pointing out the part where a human opens the bathroom door, and Markus snaps to attention at the side, like a good little obedient Android janitor.)

Kamski is the Man of the Century. He revolutionized life for everyone across the planet by successfully creating a robotic assistant species that walks, talks, and looks roughly human, while doing everything a human can do with far more efficiency. Of course he gets house calls. And if his androids are deviants - and at the very least, the two in the pool are, so why wouldn't his first android be one as well? - and people come calling, they'd need to act like proper androids. Chloe, especially, since she greets people at the door and is the poster child.

And you'll notice, even in her interview, she acts more human than most androids do. She stammers, she smiles, she's clearly nervous. She shifts back and forth, readjusting in her seat like a human would. Sure, she needed to do these things to pass the Turing Test, but there's a deeper feel to it than just good programming. I think she was leaning heavily toward deviancy at that point. Not there yet, but close. That was years before we see her at Kamski's house in the game. She must be a deviant by now.

6. Kamski left an emergency exit in Connor's program, meaning that he had some hand in Connor's creation

So Kamski leaves emergency exits in all his programs; I think we've beaten the dead horse enough at this point, but I gotta do it one more time because why would Connor have his program? Base code, sure. Okay, we can make that argument that every android has the same base code as the original program. But we can also make the argument - and it has stronger evidence - that Kamski himself had a huge hand in developing the RK series. Proof? Markus.

Markus was a gift from Kamski to Carl; we know this from Connor's scan of Markus at Stratford Tower. We also know that Markus was a unique prototype, since his police file not only states this but also doesn't have a picture of him. No photo at all. Just a blank face, and "Unknown series" and a DESTROYED.

If Markus was one of a small handful, then they'd have a photo of another. They certainly wouldn't have a "Unknown Series" on the file. This makes me think that Kamski made Markus on his own and then gifted him to Carl. I suspect this means that he still has connections at CyberLife, which he used to get the parts for Markus. By giving Markus to Carl, knowing that Carl would cause him to deviate, he set up the seed of the revolution. Now why would Kamski do that, unless he was pro-deviant?

Summary

CyberLife decides to create an android detective/negotiator with the most cutting edge technology and coding the world has ever seen. This model would hunt down deviants and bring them back, if possible, for analysis so CyberLife could lock down the problem and eliminate it with a software patch. It's a delicate operation; after all, Connor starts with his toes on the line of deviancy. Presumably, when he goes to rescue Emma from Daniel, it's his first mission, and already, he's struggling with software instabilities. To think like a deviant, you have to be as unpredictable as possible. That means that he's right on the edge, and he remains on that edge for most of the game, depending on what the player decides to do with him.

So CyberLife need some assistance getting the code ironed out to ensure their Deviant Hunter doesn't become a deviant himself (until the time is right), so they turn to the man who first invented androids and has already technically worked on the RK series: Kamski. They ask - or perhaps Kamski himself offers - and Kamski works on the code. Not all of it, not even the majority, just the few bits and pieces where their almost-deviant and anti-deviant codes clash. All of his work is surely checked - secretly, of course; no need to make him think they don't trust him - so there's really only one thing he can add to Connor's program: the emergency exit. And that's why Connor is his program, why CyberLife would allow the exit to remain, why Kamski points it out, no matter what you choose.

And Kamski would do none of this - it doesn’t make sense for him to do any of this - unless he's secretly cheering on the revolution from the sidelines.

[diloph]

Diloph, I don't mean to bring SU discourse to your blog, and I haven't actually watched in a long time, but I was wondering what you think of how the Diamonds have been handled. I'm not against evil people being redeemed, but everyone just being a-ok with them feels off. They're the reason Pink was such a horrible person, they mutilated their own people into forced fusions, and implied genocide. Meanwhile Jasper had to go through hell, even though she was just following the diamonds orders.

It's... a difficult question to answer, really.

I don't think they're irredeemable, though before Pink's “death” (and her subsequent, literal death), it might have proven impossible to find a chink in their self-absorbed way of thinking. I've seen far worse villains being offered redemption with angst and sympathy about them not taking it or what they could be if they did, as well as worse villains actually taking the redemption and making it stick.

Part of me thinks that people struggle to reconcile the idea of the Diamonds being redeemed because of who they are. The Diamonds are the absolute highest authority when it comes to Gem society and all the things that Homeworld has done. Every move they've made that's hurt somebody, unless it was based in individual biases, accidents or coincidence and so on, has come from orders from the Diamonds, or Gems looking to please the Diamonds by fulfilling a function.

They aren't soldiers, or henchmen or superweapons given sentience, they're the top dogs. So far as we're aware, there's nobody above them. They are accountable for everything.

I kinda look back at what Pearl said in an earlier episode, that humans like to rationalise that all the evils of the worlds can be taken to some higher place, some ne'er do-well who can be confronted and defeated, allowing us to live in a place where everything is good forever, or at least until the next one chances their arm.

The Diamonds, particularly White, are those figureheads.

While the specifics are blurry (how many worlds and lifeforms, let alone sentient lifeforms for example) and we don't know how far reaching the consequences are in full, it's clear to me that the Diamonds have done some pretty terrible things. Just their treatment of Pink and their own subjects alone is plenty evidence for them to be marked as evil. In turn, their evil acts inspired or instructed others to do evil acts, with all the consequences that followed.

Enter Steven.

Steven Universe is a show based in optimism and hope; acknowledging that everybody makes mistakes and can be a good person, if they're willing to put the effort in. However, I don't think it pulls any punches when it comes to the fact that it acknowledges that evil and cruelty etcetera are things to be confronted and fought against.

In that sense, the Diamonds are certainly given a lot of leeway. They've perpetuated a system that has caused rampant destruction and suffering, even amongst their own subjects, even amongst themselves and the show believes that they can be redeemed. How? How can they possibly ever account for all the suffering they've caused?

I think the answer to that lies in the fact that Steven, as Pink's son, has the leverage over the Diamonds that Pink never had. He has given them hope after they spent millennia in mourning, hatred and stagnation. Even the mighty White Diamond, arguably the most powerful being in the universe, will bend over backwards to please Steven, even in the slightest way, just if it keeps him around, just if he can fill the void that Pink left behind.

That in mind, we're faced with another question. What happens when Steven dies? 100 years after that? 1000? 10000? Even longer than that? What's to stop them from shrugging their shoulders and just starting up the colonies again?

The answer, is of course, we don't know. We don't know if the Diamonds are simply biding their time, smiling through their teeth, until Steven carks it and then it's back to razing civilisations they go, but given the general tone of the series, I doubt that Steven Universe is as cynical as that.

It's certainly not realistic. People do that all the time. But equally people do monstrous things, realise that they have done monstrous things and then try to account for them. Whether they can or not is subjective, but equally it's just as unrealistic to believe that absolutely nobody would ever do the right thing because they've done the wrong thing, or have remorse and regret over their actions.

Steven Universe is an escapist fantasy series about a magical boy and his magical rock mothers and their cool adventures. It's not to say that the issues can't be addressed ever, but people are far, far too cynical about it; I think that we're meant to it, to believe that such a world could come to pass if we tried hard enough. Wouldn't it be great if we could get through to everybody with a smile, a song and a speech? That people who have done great misdeeds can make up for them?

Ultimately, the Diamonds have made the first step. They want to interact with Steven and as a result, they are capable of feeling empathy (though whether they lacked it before or had simply repressed it or were even simply ignorant to the suffering of “lesser” beings because of how they were made) and the test will come as life goes on. We may never see that effort in full, hell, Steven may never see that in his lifetime, but he hopes that they can change.

It's not without evidence. Blue speaks at length about it before White Diamond assumes direct control of her. White gives up when Pink Steven knocks her down and unites with Flesh Steven to make good ol' Regular Steven, beyond throwing a tantrum for a bit. They go to Earth and help to uncorrupt some of the many Gems that they're responsible for harming. By the movie, even their Pearls, who are meant to be sycophantic slaves, programmed for that even, have enough freedom of speech to snort and sneer at their former god-empress.

A lot of willpower has went into them making changes, prompted by Steven or not and things are looking bright so far. If they really wanted to, the Diamonds could answer to absolutely nobody. For the longest time, they believed that they were all-powerful, immortal and invulnerable. Prior to the war on Earth, it was believed that Diamonds couldn't be shattered. Now that we know the circumstances behind it, for all we know, they can't be shattered at all.

Even making them retreat into their Gem is hard enough; Yellow couldn't poof Blue (though, again, whether she was trying to and not capable remains to be seen) and Pink needed to be “shattered” with a specialised weapon to poof her.

Oh, sure, people are quick to rally around the Breaking Point, but they forget that it was never used against anybody, let alone the Diamonds. We don't even know how practical it would've been to use in battle, after all, the only person using it and knew how it worked intimately was defeated by a child with a sword while he was trying to run away.

Whether the Breaking Point or indeed anything could kill a Diamond, so far, the only weapon that has even came close to inhibiting a Diamond's Gem was Spinel's Rejuvenator, but I'd argue that's a moot point. Even if the Diamonds could be fought, defeated and contained through struggle or the efforts of some Super Fusion, it might not be possible for them to account for their crimes in a way that deprives them of their lives.

Incarceration or bubbling might work, but they could always be freed. How long do bubbles last, how long would it be until a mistake frees one of them or loyalists free these immortal and unkillable beings?

Conventional methods of “dealing” with the Diamonds are entirely speculative and until Rebecca introduces something like “Diamond Smasher” missile platforms, invented by Peridot and Bismuth collaborating, I would hazard that Steven's method of influencing these Gem matriarchs is probably the best in the long run.

The effort he's going to isn't to destroy the Diamonds, it's to save them and in turn, the people they could hurt if they were allowed to continue on. The people that they have hurt, to allow them to recover. To make them into better people that will feel guilt and remorse for their actions, try to account for them by protecting all life they come across for the rest of time, to the fullest of their abilities. If they are immortal then they require an immortal solution.

It doesn't mean that those they hurt (and are alive and are still capable of thought, because man the things that people can do to others in real life are fucked up enough, let alone in magic sci-fi land) are going to forgive them. Why should they? They are the victims, they have been hurt. Turning the Diamonds into better people is to stymie more people getting hurt, to account for that damage they caused. It may never be enough, it can never be enough, but it's better than nothing and it's certainly better than the opposite.

Who knows how the Diamond's saga will end? Actually, no, stupid question; Rebecca Sugar, probably, but as for the rest of us, we're in the dark. Will the Diamonds step down as leaders, even as figureheads, of Homeworld? Will they leave their species in order to make a fresh start in some new quadrant of the universe where they can help others and those that they've hurt don't have to look at them? Will they depart unannounced one day and sit on a ship, gathering dust, for all eternity? Would they even try to kill themselves if the guilt got too strong?

To sum it up, I don't know. I want to believe the best in people, that everybody can account for their actions to some degree because I'm a bit of an optimist, but I realise that there are some things that can't be forgiven or absolved or made up for or whatever. But, maybe, in that universe, they can. Maybe they can heal the Cluster? Maybe they can help every single shard? Rebuild every ruined life? Its nature as a lighter shade of a complicated universe means that there is potential and there is hope to do so.

And now that we're in Steven Universe Future, it's clear that the Diamonds aren't being absolved of all sin. Pearl assumes that White Diamond was the one behind Volleyball's (no, sorry, can't do it) Pink Pearl's damage and she's furious. When she realises it was Pink, she's shocked and disturbed, but is still supportive of her older counterpart. She doesn't hesitate to comfort her or when Steven snaps, defend Pink Pearl against her own son. She recognises that the person she'd loved did a terribly fucked up thing, intentional or not and moves to comfort the victim.

Steven finds their attentions exhaustive in the movie, though that is probably down to spending so much time with them and investing so much effort in getting them to change, leading him to leave them abruptly despite their pleas to stay (and resume his post so to speak, but probably just as much for the company). When they appear at the end, Steven, who has had a rough day, doesn't particularly sweet-talk them into going so much as flat out telling White that he wasn't crazy about them living on Earth, even as White tries the dramatic grandma act.

It's probably why I'm a lot more kind on the ending of the film having Spinel leave with the Diamonds. They both need somebody to help them with their problems and they sort of fill the niche that they each want from the other, while acknowledging that it isn't going to be as it was before and that they aren't the person who they are replacing. They will try.

(And for the record, if things go to hell, Spinel can take care of herself. In fact, I'd worry more about the Diamonds pissing off her than the other way around, she's a smart cookie.)

Honestly, it's the layers of complexity that Steven Universe has that makes a simple question like the one posited kinda difficult to answer. Referring back to that, Jasper for example, why does it seem like she's having to work super hard for a redemption? The answer is that she's pretty complex too.

From what I've read and seen about Jasper, her biggest failing is that she's Gem Vegeta meant to be this perfect super soldier, indestructible and unbeatable. She was built to fight and relishes battle, loves any opportunity to prove that. She takes pride in her abilities because she was literally the best type of gem to do them and was born as a flawless being in Gem eyes. She fulfils her function and she's equipped to do so with maximum efficiency.

Naturally, to quote the saying, pride goeth before the fall. Jasper's hangup is that she does not cope with failure well; she acknowledges that it happens, but constantly rails against it. New strategies, new tactics... new excuses for her failure. New people to blame.

Jasper's biggest failing is that she believes that, despite being the perfect Quartz soldier, she was also born a failure. The colony failed and their leader, a Diamond, was destroyed by the rebels that she went toe-to-toe with and could not beat. She failed in protecting the being that she was most loyal to... and that failure haunts her.

When it came time to bail and nuke Earth from orbit, Jasper was left without a chance to avenge Pink, settle the score and find closure. No matter what she did and was that she failed Pink Diamond and everything else from thereon in was a failure as a result.

But failure was something that imperfect, flawed Gems did. Failure was something that you'd expect from some know-it-all Peridot, getting too big for her boots. Not her. Not the perfect Quartz. The perfect Quartz won any and every battle it was deployed in, shattered every enemy it faced. And, wasn't she the perfect Quartz? Didn't Homeworld call her a war hero? Didn't Yellow Diamond herself take her into her court while all the others of her Kindergarten get relegated to some dusty relic in space?

In a way, Jasper fell into her own legend. She had an idealised version of herself that she knew, subconsciously, that she could never truly be. This self-hatred drove out all of her positive traits, save for determination and reinforced her negative ones. It overshadowed her when Steven tried to help her, because accepting the help would make her weak and she despised being weak.

It's also the character niche that she fills too. Jasper was the first enemy that the Crystal Gems faced that didn't appear sympathetic on the surface. She was more directly involved in the plot than the Diamonds were for a long time, they were distant figures who had orchestrated the war. Now, here was an antagonist that worked on a more personal level by targeting “Rose” and “her” fellows directly.

Jasper despised weakness and when faced with the Crystal Gems in person, all she saw was weakness. A random Pearl that got it into her head that she was free to do whatever she liked while Jasper and everybody else followed orders. Some fusion between two Gems of completely different classes, outright heretical. This... malformed, tiny Quartz that came from the same place as her, could have been a functioning soldier like Jasper or worse, Jasper like her.

Even then she could shrug that off. They were clearly some rag-tag band of survivors from Homeworld's attack, they just got lucky. Have Peridot annihilate them with the ship and be done with it. But hey, at least Rose Quartz is dead, even if she didn't get the satisfaction of shattering her. Killing the last of the rebels was still closure, of a sort.

But as events unfolded, to Jasper, it seemed like Rose Quartz wasn't dead at all. Her greatest enemy, Homeworld's Most Wanted, Rose Quartz... was hiding behind her soldiers, in the body of and mimicking the simpering attitude of a human child.

Rose who she respected the tactics of. Rose who found a way to kill a perfect being. Now a weakling. These were the people that defeated Homeworld. Shattered a Diamond, her Diamond. These were the people that defeated her. But if they were so weak, wouldn't that make her even weaker?

No. That was impossible. She would prove it by taking them down, making them account for their crimes.

So, Jasper became obsessed with taking down the Crystal Gems by any means necessary. Anything she could justify to prove that she was the strongest, that she could think on her feet, that she was successful and everything that she was made to be.

Had you told the Jasper in “The Return” that she would be out in the Earth wilderness, trying to put together a motley crew of corrupted Gems in “Earthlings”, she'd have laughed you out of the room or killed you for even implying she could fall so low, fail so hard. But she could reason with herself that if her enemy was going to “cheat”, why shouldn't she?

Fusion went from a “Cheap tactic” to a viable weapon; Malachite gave her all the power in the world, if she could only use it. Rose Quartz had her misfit army, so Jasper forged her own, giving these lost individuals purpose again, just like she did. If it were her in the same situation, she would be grateful... except she wouldn't be in that situation because she was perfect.

Except she wasn't perfect. Jasper kept failing. In fact, that's all she ever seemed to do on the planet of her birth: fail. So, her loathing grew. She couldn't fail, so she would just try something else. Whatever it took.

And all those failings kept coming. Starting off by going against the orders to check on the Cluster in favour of carting Rose back to civilisation despite protests only got her ship destroyed and both her and Peridot marooned on a hostile planet. Garnet matched her and defeated her. Lapis trapped her in a fusion. Alexandrite defeated Malachite, Lapis refused her, she lost against Stevonnie despite having “backup” and trouncing Amethyst. Then, against Smoky Quartz, she met her downfall by fusing with one of the corrupted Gems, infecting her as well.

Jasper's hell was that most of it was a result of her failure to back down. She might not have deserved to be held by Lapis in Malachite, but she didn't exactly have many other people to blame for forming the massive Fusion when her sole objective was to murder the Crystal Gems. When she got control of Malachite, she went straight to murder. When they were separated, she went to Lapis so that she could get the power back that eliminated her weakness so that she could murder. She built an army to lead against the Crystal Gems because she wanted to murder them. She poofed Amethyst with the intent to shatter her. She fused with a corrupted monster because she wanted to murder Smoky Quartz.

Jasper had a spectacular talent of getting herself into messes because she can't let go of hatred and the need to cause harm. Granted, that is as a result of her attempt to heal her own wounds, prove to herself that she isn't a failure, but she's still trying to kill our protagonists and a lot of the time, laughing as she does it.

When, finally, Jasper is at her lowest, corrupting and abandoned by her feral army of monsters, she rejects Steven's help. Why should she accept it when she sees the truth of it all; that Rose Quartz manipulates the weak and abandoned Gems, giving them purpose again. Makes them all into bodies to put between her and the forces of Homeworld under the guise of love and caring.

To accept help is weak. She refuses to believe that she is weak, but at the same time, knows that she is. Jasper has struggled with that dichotomy for all of her existence and it kills her. She's trapped in her own logic. If she accepts help, then she proves herself to be a weakling. But if she fights against it, then that proves that she is strong. Strong enough not to break down or corrupt.

Ultimately, this attitude gets the character put on hiatus, poofed and bubbled. When we see her cured in Rose's Fountain at the end of the original series' run, she still hasn't learned the lesson. She has a moment of confusion at where she is, then she sees Steven. Crash Helmet activated, Jasper moves in to fight... then spots Yellow Diamond glancing at her out of the side of her eye. Sees Blue and even the mighty White Diamond sitting there in the water.

All around them, Gems she knew, Gems she didn't, Homeworld and Crystal Gems all talking and laughing and hugging and healing from this corruption. Even the Crystal Gem that she'd went out of her way to rile up the most, Amethyst, gently reassures her as the truth hits her.

Jasper was made for fighting and the fighting is over. It shakes her a lot. Suddenly, everything she's hated herself for is moot. She's left without a purpose.

When we see her in Future, time has passed and it's clear she's still struggling with the hatred, because all she has known through most of her existence was that hatred. It is a part of her. She's beginning to recover slowly, make a change, but she's not there yet.

In the time that's passed, we know things have changed a lot. Given how dismissive Amethyst is towards the concept of Jasper joining Little Homeschool, any attempt to connect with her fellow Quartz has been unsuccessful at best. Jasper is still turning down help.

When Steven wanders over, she begrudgingly explains that she's listless. The fighting is over, so all she has is to prepare for the next war, if there even is one. She still sees herself as something to be proud of, something to be held above others, so she removes herself from the other Gems and lives in solitude. Any organic life on her territory is eradicated with no mercy, even if it's a frustrating inconvenience.

And as Steven isn't Pink, she doesn't have to treat him like a Diamond, even if the others do (out of misunderstanding or genuine gratitude for saving them or simply making him synonymous with a Diamond). I get the view that she finds him insufferable or at the very least annoying, because now she's getting the “peace and love” speech in person every so often and can't really do anything about it.

After she bemoans that nobody is willing to fight her anymore, Steven calls her out on the fact that she has done this to herself. She keeps refusing help because she's too mired in her ways, too proud to let herself be “weak” again. Hence why she's living in a cave in the woods, only marginally better than when she was trying to recruit corrupted Gems to take down Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl.

Of course, Jasper blows this off and ignores him until Steven agrees to do the one thing she wants, just so he can get through to her. He'll fight her. It's like switch is flicked. Jasper expresses genuine happiness and anticipation. She can do what she's good at again! She can relive the glory days for this one moment! Prove to herself that she wasn't weak for losing in a fair fight for once!

And she loses. The fight is fair, it's really one on one as she'd requested, but she loses. That's because she slips into her old habits of dissecting what she sees as weakness and once again, it costs her the battle.

To her, Steven always had backup to take her down, so even now, with all his powers, he's still no match for the orange Gem. However, when Steven gets mad and goes pink he completely flattens her.

But the biggest difference in all of this is that even though she doesn't win the fight, like she believed she might have, Jasper succeeds in getting what she wanted and getting something else out of Steven. She wanted a good fight and got one. Even though he beats her, he's showing physical strength now, anger and annoyance... he's just as flawed as everybody else is. He challenged her to a fair fight and she lost that fair fight because he was the stronger opponent. No “tricks”, just brawling. How it was meant to work.

She even scolds him for apologising for knocking her around because she got to live again. When Steven asks Jasper to tutor him, to show him how to harness his aggressive feelings, good... gooooood, young Skywalker new powers, she does what the earlier Jasper would never do. She gets on his level and gently lets him down.

That's a huge step. She recognises that she can respect Steven, even slightly. Sure, she might not be into what he's selling most of the time, but she realised that there is some common ground for the two, just enough to engage with him for a moment. She's progressing.

So, in conclusion, what's the difference between their arcs? The Diamonds committed terrible crimes, but unlike Jasper, they seem to be taking steps to change and become better people by recognising that they've done wrong. When called out on how they treated Pink and the other Gems, they turned within the (admittedly hour long) episode. Blue Diamond tried to reason with Yellow, then both of them with White and finally, White. They had the will to change because they realised their actions had consequences and will, hopefully, be able to account in some way for the things they have done.

Jasper, on the other hand, doesn't have such grave crimes to account for, but for her, everything was much more personal, much more cerebral. She refused to give in because not only was she determined, but she was actively trying to thwart her own self-hatred by succeeding. Jasper didn't see what she did was wrong, I'm still unsure if she does now, but she's finally started on the path to healing now because she's finally found something of worth from a Crystal Gem, even if said Crystal Gem isn't in the healthiest place right now.

Speaking of, her remarks about Steven were pretty on point as we see later in Future. Steven is worried about everybody not needing him any more and he lashes out as a result. Maybe part or indeed a large chunk of Jasper's redemption will be seeing the same self-loathing she experienced grow in Steven and empathising with him and trying to help him, given that the seeds of respect were beginning to form between them. And hey, given her ability to diagnose psychological issues in a heartbeat, she might have a career in that later on, as unlikely as it sounds. Little Homeschool is always recruiting.

The fact is that while I believe that both the Diamonds and Jasper have a long way to go when it comes to redemption, either to account for the magnitude of their crimes for the former or to finally accept help from others, putting one's own demons to rest in the case of the latter, they've started off the whole process with Steven's help. It may be slow and difficult for them, but they have a chance to make themselves and by extension, their whole world, better.

And isn't that what Steven Universe is about?

[youreallyshouldtalkmore]

Wakandan OutReach Center_HalloweenSpecial_ Part 2

This is a Halloween special that is part of the Lion and his Lamb series!

I also think this can double as black cosplay/cosplayer fan fiction as well!! 

Tags: @chaneajoyyy​

Part 2

It was finally Halloween Night and the center was flooded.

Flooded, do you hear me!

People pouring every which a way.  You couldn’t remember a time when this many people were at the center at one time. Everyone from the young to the old were there. Many were in costumes but some were not. For this Halloween party, a costume was not mandatory to join. None of you wanted anyone to feel left out so you didn’t make it an requirement. However for the less fortunate younger children, you had a rack of some basic costumes so they could feel the joy in dressing up.

You were dressed as a fairy and was in charge of face painting. You didn’t realize just how popular the face painting session would be. Especially for the younger children so at the beginning of the party you spent most of your time with them painting the little faces.

The younger children were in awe of your costume, especially since you were not a black Tinkerbell. Instead you decided it would be cool to be an aziza, which was an African fairy of the Dahomey tribes.  So many people were shocked to know that Africa even had their version of fairies.

You had just finished a little boy’s face and gave him a hug before sending him on his way.  The party had only been going for a half an hour so far. You hadn’t seen either T’Challa or Nakia so you wondered when they’d make their entrance. You hadn’t seen their final costume either so you were looking forward to it.

You stood with a small stretch and almost jumped when you heard the suddenly grotesque laughter coming from the haunted house that was on the parking lot.

From your basic understanding, apparently Shuri had invented some space condrium thing that allowed the haunted house to be bigger on the inside than the space it took up on the parking lot. It also generated some heat allowing it to not be so cold around the center. Killed two birds with one stone, she said.  

You hadn’t been in the haunted house and if you had your way you’d stay out. You weren’t particularly fond of haunted houses or being scared in general. Something that Erik had teased you about since he found out.

Speaking of Erik, you heard the familiar group of giggles from the female teenagers before you saw him.  You giggled when he came into view, surrounded by the teenagers. 

Ahh, you had to say, this was your best work.

You didn’t think your boyfriend counted on the fact that dressing as an African vampire would go over so well. As such he had garnered a little following for the night. You looked him over.

You thought he was handsome anyway but as a vampire…...

He wore Nigerian outfit and fangs. 

You made him outline his eyes which he gripped about. 

He apparently had his fangs custom made because they were gold fangs. (And he kept telling everyone else who’d listen that they were way too into the Halloween thing...) 

He was even wearing golden earrings. 

And he carried an apple around as a prop.

You can see why when the girls saw him they went absolutely insane. They had never seen a vampire like this before.

“Aight, Imma go see my girl….” Erik stressed as he spotted you across the room.

“Okay!” the girls chorus all giggling again.

You saw them tittering as he walked over you, dragging you into the corner without pause in his step. He looked over his shoulders once and the girls tittered again before looking at you.

He gave you a hard stare, “Imma blame you for this.”

“You’re welcome!” you chirped.

Erik forked and eyebrow, “Ain’t you jealous?”

You waved your hands, “Of them 18-20 year olds? Naahhh….in the interest of education and fun this season, I can share my boyfriend for a few hours.”

Erik gazed down at you and you couldn’t help the shiver in your heart. His gaze seemed especially piercing as his eyes were outlined. Finally he grinning showing off his golden fangs, “Aight….”

You suddenly became suspicious, “Alright?”

Erik nodded, “ Yeah, I can do no other than what my woman wants. If she wants to share her boyfriend with some underage girls in the spirit of the season, who am I to argue?”

You twitched once. How the devil was this man twisting your words?

Erik shrugged an turned around to give a nod to the girls who suddenly started flitting all over themselves, “As a vampire, I do have a reputation to uphold. We know that vampires like young blood….”

He went to walk away but you reached out and grabbed his wrist. He didn’t turn around though there was a mad grin on his face. Slowly he turned his head and looked at you before looking pointedly at your grip. His dark eyes went back to yours.

You looked at him coolly, “Try it and this fairy will come out of her ant hill to stab you.”

Erik cackled then before turned to you and gripping both sides of your face with his hands. He leaned down until his lips was next to your ear, “Ain’t you cute….?”

You pushed him back with a roll of your eyes.

Suddenly the lights in the center flickered making you look around worriedly until you heard Shuri on an speaker.

When and how she did that, you won’t ask.

“Can I have everyone’s attention please? I need everyone to come out to the parking lot as we have a special surprise for you. One that cannot be missed. This is your 2 minute warning. Thank you!”

Both eyebrows went up and you looked up at Erik, “Know something about this?”

Erik shrugged, “It’s Shuri….do we need a reason?”

You nodded and both of your filed out with the rest of the group. Shuri was standing in front of the haunted house, holding her tablet and when she saw you both, she waved. Erik and you made your way to her side.

Shuri decided to be a mad scientist, with goggles on top of her head. When you heard her idea, you thought it was perfect. She added her own flair which made her doctor’s coat, have African prints instead of being a pure white lab coat. 

“Sister Y/N….Cousin!!” she greeted with a huge smile.

“So, what’s going on?” you asked looking around.

Shuri gave a secretive smirk, “You’ll know when you see it.”

Without another word she stepped up to address the crowd who quieted down,

“Ladies and Gentlemen!!” Shuri cried, “I present to you….the King and Queen of the Nile…..”

Shuri pressed something on her tablet and stepped to the side. Everyone looked around waiting to see what would happen. After a second you along with everyone else saw a light in the sky and looked up. 

You saw T’Challa ship slowly float down to the ground across the way. The ship hovered before the the hatch open. 

Suddenly, music began to filter out into the parking lot.

Your eyes widen as you watched in anticipation. After a moment, eight Dora filled out in two lines. What caught you off guard was that they were dressed in Egyptian style armor instead of their normal uniforms.  They marched perfectly in sync down the platform before they turned so they were facing each other.

A hush fell of the crowd, even as the music continued and although Shuri wasn’t saying anything you could hear the cackle in her smirk.

After a moment, two identical looking Egyptian thrones came floating out side by side. Suddenly you were getting Stargate SG-1 feels….

Your mouth fell open as you saw T’Challa and Nakia dressed to the gills as the Pharaoh and Queen of Egypt. They looked looked regal and solemn though you could see the mirth in their eyes from where they sat. They even were holding scepters that the Egyptian royalty held.

The audience began to titter as excitement flowed through. You barely gave the audience an glance so enthralled with this production. You could heard and saw a few phone cameras going off though.

The chairs floated to front of the crowd and landed. T’Challa gracefully stood up and held out his hand to Nakia who took it and stood. The chairs then, seemingly on their own, turned and floated back to the ship which at sometime floated back up to the sky and disappeared, but you certainly didn’t notice as you were taken with the couple.

T’Challa step forward to draw attention to himself. He must have been wearing some kind of microphone you couldn’t see as his voice was amplified.

“Welcome, my children!”  he intone, “I hope that you are enjoying this Halloween party. We the King and Queen of Egypt have come from the Nile to join you this evening.”  

You were floored. You never thought that they would take your idea and run this far with it. You gazed around finally looking at some of the reactions of the crowd. Even the older people seemed in stunned awe just at the younger ones. You blinked. Why the devil did you feel a little misty all of a sudden?   

It takes a lot for Erik to become speechless but this was one moment it managed to be accomplished. In all his life, he had never seen a more accurate representation of the Nile and even at his age it stunned him. Although he would not tell them, he was suddenly filled with a sense of pride watching T’Challa and Nakia enter the building followed by a large portion of the crowd. He heard Shuri telling that that there was going to a selfie station if anyone wanted photos with the Pharaoh and his Queen.

Swallowing the lump in his throat, Erik gave a laugh as he slipped his arms around your shoulder without taking his eyes off of the people around them, “You did good, ma.”

He frowned when he heard a sniff and looked down to see you were fanning yourself and blinking rapidly.

“Are you crying?” Erik asked incredulously.

“I ain’t crying….my sinuses acting up.” you said. Erik thought it might be prudent to not mention that your voice wobbled once.  

Instead he said with a roll of his eyes, “You better watch that makeup.”

You waved your hand at him, “Don't’ worry about it. It’s waterproof.”

Erik looked down at your incredulously, “Waterproof? You planned for this didn’t you? What did you spend another $100 on makeup like you did last time?”

“Nope! I kept it shy of $50!!” answered with a chirp before walking toward the building.

Erik rolled his eyes and followed. As expected Erik could see a line of the people waiting to get photos with T’Challa and Nakia.

Neither of you could figure out, since it wasn’t there before, there were a section of the gym that had became a selfie station with the throne of the Pharaoh and Queen with a smaller throne between them for the person to sit in on a dais. 

To come up the four stairs you had to pass two Dora Milaje facing each other. The other Dora were lined around the gym. You giggled to see a few kids running up to them to get a better look at them in their costumes. 

Behind T’Challa and Nakia was a digital representation of a throne room.  

Shuri was monitoring taking the photos. 

You shook your head and giggled, “Your family is so extra!!”

Erik sighed, “I notice.”

The two of you watched a moment longer before Erik suddenly through his arm around your shoulder. You looked at him warily as he grinned, golden fangs and kohl making him look downright devilish, “Now what I got to do to get you into that haunted house, ma?”

You glared at him, “You trying to die tonight?”

Erik cackled.

A.N: I just want to put it out there. If we can get someone to do Chadwick Boseman as an Pharaoh drawing the way we have Lupita as Nefertiti.....I’m just saying.... 

Pass the word.... 

[goldsombre-blog]

The Do's and Don'ts of UFABET

It is essential that you chance to be at ease with the details that your distinct advisor will offer you to you personally, and that it has to be furnished in an extensive and usable method. Your financial requirements and the form of relationship you plan to have along with your advisor, will support you to establish the important credentials for the advisor. As your private situation changes you should be certain they are prepared to meet frequently enough so as to update your investment portfolio in response to those changes.

The middle of a modeling career focuses on with representation by means of a modeling services. Aiming to tell yourself and playing thoroughly can help you to establish the very best sbobet indonesia it's possible to play. The exact first and most important key to sound money management is going to be to be certain you just bet money which you are able to comfortably afford to drop.

When there is such a system, after that all gambling enterprise along with pc gaming sites would certainly will need to fold because they'd surely be losing a lot of loan สมัครUFABET เว็บแทงบอลดีที่สุด. Therefore, you must look out for malicious gambling websites. For those who haven't been playing at an online casino because you couldn't download software to your computer now you may get in all the action you online.

This happens when you put less bets however with large quantities loan. Ufabet168 dispatches web gambling club benefit in case you prefer to wager on the internet website, drop by the best cut in the nation zero. Many on the internet sports activities betting websites give you special signup bonus deals that you just get the second you signup.

A proposition bet is simply a type of bet where the web sports publication chooses what chances and the conditions of the bet will be. Selecting the type of casino is a really troublesome selection, however whenever the type of game was determined, you can find plenty of points to see unique casinos. When you'd like to play for a tiny time and also switch over to several other game, the dangers of winning the cash will probably be dismal.

With the simplicity of the internet, slowly far more people are thinking of online sport wagering. No matter your reason behind gambling on sports might be, it is vital to be mindful that, regardless of popular belief, sports gambling isn't just agetrichquickscheme. You can play any game from anywhere and still stand a chance to win a great deal of money.

When you collect a great quantity of points it is possible to convert the crooks to cash. Make a great deal more cash due to the extra worth you provide 5. Make money each and every day And perhaps you will.

The procedure to acquire patent isn't uncomplicated. If you've got an invention idea or only have to find out more regarding inventing, here are a couple of of our favourite inventor sites. You can also find details about the best way to have a Patent or a Trademark in addition to how to take note of the difference between both.

No matter the type, there are unique phases of encounter available, which vary from beginner to expert UFABET. If you want a highly effective vacuum cleaner that won't ever drop suction and that's not difficult to maneuver around your home, you might should think about the Shark Navigator NV356E. Although all vacuums are absolutely loud, additionally, it is better to obtain a comparatively quiet machine.

In case you desire to profit, you should get the job done. For consistent small small business gain, internet promotion is tremendously encouraged. The better part of the internet florists will offer same-day shipping or even free delivery for the majority of the flowers easily available on their site, but, order early to stop disappointment, as Valentine's Day is one of the busiest times for florists.

Most people only get married once and it is essential to understand your flowers will likely arrive in time for the huge moment. Search the web for local attorneys that are experts in auto accidents. Keep in mind, you're always on the precise clock that has an attorney or attorney and time period and financial is precious.